


Courage Comes When You Need

by PersonablePerson



Series: You're a Giant On The Inside [1]
Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018), Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Crossover, F/F, F/M, Murder, Mystery, Witch Jughead Jones
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-23 06:03:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23006875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PersonablePerson/pseuds/PersonablePerson
Summary: Bodies of missing members of the Serpent coven have been turning up on the fringes of town. An old friend arrives in town just in time to help Jughead track down the culprits. Is this the beginning of an old war reviving itself? Or is something much darker coming for the Serpents?
Relationships: Archie Andrews/Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones, Cheryl Blossom/Toni Topaz
Series: You're a Giant On The Inside [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1653454
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11





	Courage Comes When You Need

**Author's Note:**

> The timeline here is weird and by weird I mean it's sometime after what would have been riot night, had riot night happened in this verse which it did not, I've taken so much liberty with this it's best not to try to relate it to the canon timeline too much. For Sabrina its early season 1 so the dark baptism hasn't happened yet in this part.

Every town in every city has a past a present and future. Be it a past of growth, bountiful trees and communities rising from the ashes. Or a future beneath ash, shame, and vengeance. For Riverdale it’s past is ripe with stories many of which played out within the shadows. For the general public they were merely whisperings turned to fairy tales turned to jokes. But for the descendants of the participants, their history, their present, their future could never be a mere wives’ tale.

Jughead paused a moment before dismounting his bike. He needed a moment to breathe. Another body had turned up, the third in as many months. This one was his age, one of his own classmates, a fellow Serpent. In a moment he’d have to walk into the White Worm and try to placate the other Serpents long enough to come up with a plan to start looking for answers. After all, two deceased gang members was an occupational hazard even when the Serpents had become peaceful watchdogs in Riverdale. But three, three sounds targeted. Three sounds like a word Jughead knew better than to throw around listlessly.

He took one last deep breathe said a passing prayer for his fallen brethren and started his trek inside. The atmosphere of the White Worm was just as heated as he expected it to be. Only a few even noticed he’d entered at first. He walked with purpose, back straight up to the stage and turned to face them all.

“Serpents!”

Only a few turned to face him the others continued to bicker amongst themselves. His eyes narrowed and he let out a huff. With a wave of his hand the room went dark and the sound in the room died down. He waved his hand again and the lights and music came back on although the latter was slightly quieter.

“You all know by now that Daggy Dirsmit’s body was found just outside of town this morning. The police have no leads, but this is the third serpent that’s been murdered and we are not leaving this up to the police department anymore. My dad agrees and he’s getting me in to see the body tomorrow. As for the rest of you I need a group to go scope out the area where Daggy was found. From now until we figure out what’s going on, no one is to leave town alone.”

Complaints broke out around the room and Jughead raised his voice to speak over them.

“Look I can’t stop you from doing what you want, but we don’t know who or what’s h- killing us and until we do, we’re on high alert. Keep an eye out for anyone new in town, any new gangs trying to move in on our territory. Alright? Sweet Pea, Fangs meet me by the bar.”

Toni locked eyes with him as he was heading over and he stopped to talk to her.

“I know you’re thinking the same thing the rest of us are thinking, and I know you think you’re keeping things calm by not saying anything but it’s not going to stop people from getting riled up.”

“I know, come on I have one other team in mind, and I think you and Cheryl should be on it too.”

Toni tilted her head back to gesture at Cheryl and the three of them converged on the bar Sweet Pea and Fangs were leant against.

Sweet Pea spoke first, “So when are we checking out this dumpsite?” 

“Tomorrow you Fangs and Toni will head to the edge of town right near Greendale to check it out, and on Tuesday the five of us are going to scope out the ghoulies.”

Sweet Pea huffed out a laugh, there was a small air of fear under it but none of the others mentioned it. They all knew the magnitude of what he was suggesting. Well almost all of them. “I was starting to think you lost your balls up there Jones.”

“I know there’s bad blood between the Serpents and the ghoulies but why is this little side mission a secret, if there might be a war starting…”

Fangs raised an eyebrow and stared at Toni in confusion. “You didn’t tell her?”

“It’s not exactly a simple conversation.”

“It’s pretty simple to me, The ghoulies aren’t just a rival gang, they’re hunters, witch hunters.”

“USED to be witch hunters, we don’t know if they’ve suddenly decided to pick up their family business, and we don’t want to start a war with them if we don’t know for sure. That’s why this is a secret, and the one time I’m going to ask that none of you tell any of the other members where we are going except Joaquin. He’s with Daggy’s parents right now but I already filled him in. If anything happens to us, he’ll know where we are and alert the others.”

They didn’t stick around much longer after that conversation. Long days were ahead for them in the week to come and they all had much to do to prepare. For Jughead he went to see Archie, aside from Cheryl he was one of the few mortals in town who new the truth about the Serpent coven and he felt he owed his friend a heads up if there was a possibility that someone was trying to wipe them out. Both he and Toni would share a story that night. The story of their ancestors, of their grandparents. They’d talk about a large coven that lived in secret among mortals in Riverdale. How another group moved into town, hunters, trained for generations and ready to destroy the coven that would soon be pushed to the Southside of Riverdale. As a war broke out and went on for two generations the coven would eventually be known as the Serpent gang and the hunters ironically named the Ghoulies as if to say they were more terrifying and more haunting than those they claimed were monsters.

Over time the war died down. Younger ghoulies less inclined to hunt those different from them though they remained disdainful towards the witches of Riverdale. Their fights becoming strictly about territory. This was the Riverdale Toni and Jughead had grown up in while aware of the history beneath the soil. The blood of their ancestors. Jughead would share all of this with Archie and though he hadn’t planned to when he walked knocked on the door of that familiar house, one other.

Jughead wasn’t displeased to find that he wasn’t the only witch visiting his friend for dinner that evening. On the contrary his mood lightened ever so slightly at the sight of Archie’s cousin perched on the couch.

“Hey Sabrina, you picked a hell of a time to come visit Riverdale.”

**Author's Note:**

> I can't say I've fully returned, life has been really tough and I'm adjusting to a lot of big changes. I'm finally ready to get back into the routine of writing again. I figure the best way to get back into my groove was to finally kick this ficlet series off because I've only been tossing it around in my brain for over a year. Ideally I'll get back to my other fics soon as well but I'm still getting my rhythm back so I won't promise it will be all at once.


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